A large majority of persons, both women and more recently men, color their hair so as to either cover grey or permanently modify their natural hair color.
A variety of chemical preparations are available and commonly used to change the natural characteristics of hair. Color and style are typically changed using dyes, bleaches and permanent-waving preparations. For example, hair color may be non-permanently (i.e. temporarily), semi-permanently (i.e. lasting several days only) or permanently (i.e. lasting until hair re-grows but fading occurs after four to six weeks) changed depending on the particular coloring compositions employed. These chemical preparations can damage hair.
Permanent color requires harsher conditions to efficiently lighten natural pigment and swell the hair, causing cuticles to open. It may be achieved by making use of oxidative dyes, bleaching techniques or using a combination of the both simultaneously. Indeed, oxidative hair dyes are widely used in the hair industry since they provide permanent color to the hair, generally. Upon these harsh conditions, certain physical properties of the hair are altered resulting in dry hair.
Permanent hair dye products usually comprise two components, namely a formulation containing an alkaline agent and dye intermediates and another containing an oxidant such as hydrogen peroxide and other chemical agents. When these types of products are to be used, the two components are mixed together and the so obtained mixture is immediately applied onto any type of hair, and such is done without taking into consideration whether or not the person's hair is damaged, resistant and/or previously chemically treated.
In this connection, known to the Applicant is a plurality of applications and/or patents relating to the field of semi- or permanent hair colorations.
Briefly, European patent application EP-A-1 153 598 discloses a two- and three-part hair dye. In the two-part hair dye, the first part contains an alkali agent and a direct dye; and the second part contains hydrogen peroxide. In the three-part hair dye, the first part contains an alkali agent, the second part contains hydrogen peroxide and the third part contains a direct dye. In either of these dyes, the first part contains a first direct dye (A) selected from a series of very precise chemical formulae; and a second direct dye (B) selected from Basic Blue 99, Basic Blue 47, Disperse Blue 1, Disperse Blue 3, Disperse Blue 7, Disperse Blue 72, Disperse Violet 1, Disperse Violet 4, Disperse Violet 15 and Disperse Violet 27. These hair dyes are capable of dyeing the hair in a natural, deep, brown to black color tone while bleaching the hair.
United States publication no. US 2002/0179109 A1 discloses a substantially ammonia free hair bleach product. More specifically, the hair bleach product contains a hydrogen peroxide developer; a powder activator containing a mixed persulfate oxidizing system, and a monoethanolamine alkalizing agent. It is worth mentioning that this hair bleach product only operates in conditions wherein the pH is about 10 to 12.
United States publication no. US 2003/0154562 A1 discloses a method for treating hair. More precisely, the method consists of three steps, wherein the first step requires contacting a person's hair with a substantially inactive mixture of oxidative hair dye precursors; allowing the mixture to remain in the hair for a period of about 30 seconds to about 60 minutes; and then applying a developer to the hair in order to achieve long lasting hair color change. Contrarily to the invention described later on in the present application, the aforementioned US publication requires that the coloring components be independently applied onto hair so that the precursors have sufficient time to diffuse the colorants onto the hair.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,706,077 discloses a coloring system for hair and/or skin comprises at least three separately packaged components:                a) a thio compound capable of breaking the S—S bond between cysteine residues, and an alkaline reagent;        b) a material and/or extract obtainable from the Mucuna plant; and        c) an oxidizing agent.        
U.S. Pat. No. 6,440,177 B1 discloses a single-step process and composition of hair bleach, which can lighten hair up to seven levels. This outcome is achieved by adding to the bleach mixture, a solution containing basic dye molecules, which is stable in the bleach. These dyes fall into the class of water-soluble basic azo compounds.
PCT patent applications WO 2005/002533 A1 and WO 2005/002534 A1 disclose a method for coloring hair to provide more vibrant, natural and long-lasting color. This outcome is achieved by carrying out the following sequential steps:                Contacting the hair with a dye precursor mixture which comprises a primary intermediate having a pKa in the range from about 3 to about 10 and optionally a coupler having a pKa in the range from about 3 to about 10. It is specified that the pH of the precursor mixture is selected such that less than 50% of the molecules comprising the primary intermediate and the coupler are in their anionic form when they first contact the hair.        Applying a means for aligning the hair and distributing the dye precursor mixture over the hair (in WO 2005/002533 A1 only).        Contacting the hair with a developer mixture capable of inducing oxidation of primary intermediate and coupler in the precursor mixture that is in contact with the hair to form colored species.        
Generally speaking, a drawback of using these types of hair coloring systems mentioned hereinabove is that they contain a high concentration of dye intermediates combined with strong alkaline agents and such in a single container. As a result of the use of these components, the shelf life of the product is jeopardized every time the packaging is open and exposed to oxygen. Moreover, the production and preparation of these types of hair coloring systems require special equipment and considerable amount of time in order to make them.
Another drawback associated with the hair coloring systems of the prior art is that they are not able of selectively treating a particular kind of hair that a person has. In other words, even though the hair coloring systems of the prior art generally treats all kinds of hair, they are not capable of selectively treating one type of hair per se, for example, resistant, damaged or color treated hair.
Hence, in light of the aforementioned, there is a need for a new hair coloration or decoloration system, which by virtue of its design and components, would be able to overcome some and preferably all of the aforementioned prior art problems.